Today I want to focus on apps to help you be organized and stay on budget at the grocery store. If you read my previous post on food spending, you saw that I believe one of the best ways to get your grocery bill under control is by isolating the problem from the rest of your monthly spending and monitoring it specifically.
Today I’m going to show you my top 3 apps for
- Isolating your food spending
- keeping track of food spending
- Always taking a list
Sorry, I can’t help much with the kids, but as I said in my “spend, spend, spend…” post, it’s worth getting a sitter, so you can go to the grocery store alone. I guarantee you will save money just implementing that one rule.
Back to the apps. Here are my top 3 favorite apps for not spending too much on groceries and why.
- Easy Shop – Free – Easy shop is your online grocery list. You enter your items and you can be as specific (quantities, expiration dates, etc.) or as simple as you want. You can list your items, you can move them on the list so they are grouped by the layout of the store you go to, alphabetical or by food type. Cross it off the list when you put it in your cart. Seriously, pretty close to a pencil and paper!
- Simple Shopping Budget – Free – This is great if you’re overspending at the store and have no idea where your money goes. I suggest using it for a few shopping trips and then you will be able to see how much you’ve put in your cart and have an idea of what it will cost (no, I’m not kidding). You enter an amount you want to spend on a particular shopping trip, then you enter each item you pick up and it gives you a total. Couldn’t be easier!
- Best Budget – $0.99 – Hands down my favorite budgeting app. You can create a budget JUST for GROCERIES for the month. Each time you go to the store, enter the total (I do it at the check out counter) and forget it. That’s it! Best Budget shows you how much you’ve spent so far that month, what’s left, where you are in the month (chronologically). You can check it before you start shopping to know if you’re on target for the month.
I’m sorry, Android friends, the apps listed are iPhone apps, but may be available on Android. If you have an Android, you can try Expense IQ instead of Best Budget. Only use the “Budgets” part of Expense IQ. Please email me if you have good Android budgeting apps, as I’m always looking.